Agencies involved in recovery and identification of service members

Tim Botos

Monday

May 31, 2010 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2010 at 9:28 PM

These agencies work with the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office:

• Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL), Performs DNA testing. This includes our mitochondrial DNA typing. Their work helps identify remains recovered from all conflicts. They also support other groups outside of DoD when tasked.

• The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), maintains a program dedicated solely to Vietnam War accounting, commonly referred to as “Stony Beach.” This team of experts provides direct support to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and DPMO by interviewing people in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the United States. They investigate both “last known alive” cases and first-hand “live sighting” reports.

• Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), has a worldwide mission. It was formed by the merger of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting and the Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii. Their specialists conduct field investigations and analyze wartime records and archives in support of their mission. They recover and identify remains of Americans who are missing from past conflicts.

• Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory (LSEL), provides scientific analysis of aircraft and military equipment recovered at loss sites. Its scientific evaluation helps to determine if an individual may have survived or died.

• Service Casualty and Mortuary Office, serves as primary liaison between the family and all other government groups involved in POW/MIA accounting. The Secretaries of the Military Departments maintain offices for each military service as the focal point on all casualty matters while the Department of State handles matters on missing civilians.